Bits and Pieces

This is kind of a miscellany post, but not really. I was poking through my draft posts here on my blog and I found multiple little snippets of things that I never published.

And this morning, I have pharmacology exam (heaven help me!*), so I just decided to pull together the little snippets and get them out there.

*having to memorize the side effects of a zillion different drugs has to be one of the worst uses of time in nursing school because…WE HAVE THAT INFO IN THE COMPUTERS AT THE HOSPITAL.

I am not ever gonna be elegant

I know this is a random thought, but…sometimes on social media, I see accounts that teach people how to be elegant. I’ve watched a few of the videos and I have concluded that I am very not the right target audience.

They offer tips like, “Dress your babies in white or neutral clothing to give an elegant look.” and “Never take your babies out of the house in sleepers.”

They’re usually wearing dresses with heels, their hair is perfect, their homes look gorgeous, and overall, they are living a life that is aesthetic in every way that mine is not.

Also: they speak in understated tones, with calm facial expressions and man, that is just not how I roll.

I am never gonna be elegant; it costs too much money, and also I do not have a classy-enough personality.

One more thing: there seems to be a subset of these creators who seem to think elegance = womanliness/femininity.

But I think it’s more accurate to say elegance = wealth. Historically*, being able to wear fancy shoes with perfect hair on the daily would have only been available to people who had the luxury of not having to do dirty work.

Like, farming. Or working in a factory.

*Actual historians among us, please correct me if I’m wrong.

Some random book reviews

Note: these are VERY OBVIOUSLY from my draft folder because I do not read anything besides nursing books right now. Soon, soon I will!

Slow Productivity

I picked up a copy of Cal Newport’s book from the library. It’s a pretty quick read, aimed toward knowledge workers.

Bedside nursing is decidedly NOT knowledge work, so this book was pretty irrelevant to my future career plans. 

Blogging is a kind of knowledge work, but even so, I found the book rather irrelevant. For most of my blogging career, I was also raising/homeschooling my kids. And more recently, I’ve been balancing blogging with being a full-time college student. So I have never really been a full-time knowledge worker with the kind of control over my days that he assumes. 

In Newport’s previous books (Digital Minimalism and Deep Work), my main beef has been that his ideas are generally only applicable to someone who is not a primary caregiver. He does try to give a nod to that in this book, so I applaud the effort.

But…I still didn’t think he provided satisfactory answers about how his ideas could work for someone responsible for kids or is any type of primary caregiver. 

If you could merge Cal Newport and a seasoned mom, THEN you might have something helpful. 😉 

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

I don’t remember where I heard this book recommendation, but I picked it up from the library. 

It’s a carefully researched story of how the American evangelical church has become so tied up in politics and I found it an interesting, albeit sobering, read. 

My favorite part was about Rachel Denhollander’s work to fight the epidemic of sexual abuse coverup in churches. I wanted to cheer out loud as I read about her work. She’s often viewed as a problem-causer, but I think this is such a misguided label. A person who shines light on abuse is never causing a problem…the problem was caused by the abuser. 

So often in the evangelical world, efforts to expose abuse and bring accountability are met with a call for “unity”. To that, Rachel says,

“Unity is a good thing. We are commanded to pursue it. But unity around the wrong thing is sin. And we want so badly to be unified that we get to a point where we excuse and enable sin.” 

(Denhollander, an attorney, was the first gymnast to publicly accuse Larry Nassar of abuse.)

Spaving

In a newsletter from Acorns, I learned about the term “spaving”, a mixture of spending + saving.

Basically, it’s when you spend to “save” or to get a better deal. You know how at Kohl’s, they’re always doing, “Buy one, get one 50% off” sales?

(Which is annoying because if I am buying a comforter, I most certainly do not need two of them! And that sort of sale only nets you a 25% discount on the original price of each item anyway.)

That’s definitely a spaving example.

Or you could be spaving if you buy extra produce to get the better deal, even if you’re not going to use all the produce.

Spending x-amount to get free shipping can be spaving too, but I take exception if I am close to the limit.

For example, say shipping is free with a $50 purchase.

If my cart is at $44, and shipping is $6, that means my total spend would be $50.

In a case like that, I will go browse the clearance section of the site, find something around the $7 mark (socks are a good bet for this!), add to my cart, and walk away having spent $50.

Then I’ve kept my spend at $50, but I’ve also gotten a bonus item instead of paying for shipping.

What are your thoughts on “spaving”?

Also, are any of you good at being elegant? I do think it’s theoretically possible to be frugal and elegant!